Prof Matthew Cooper completed his PhD in Australia in 1995 and then spent 13 years in the UK, first at the University of Cambridge, then 9 years in start-ups and biotechnology companies. This involved innovation, fund raising, intellectual property generation, licensing, product development and commercialisation. He returned to Australia in 2009 as a NHMRC Australia Fellow, at The Institute for Molecular Bioscience at The University of Queensland. He has consulted with Private Equity Investment, Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology and Diagnostics companies, was Managing Director of Cambridge Medical Innovations (part of Alere Inc.) and CSO of Akubio. He is an inventor and driver of a several antibiotic drug discovery programs with lead compounds pre-clinical. He was the first to establish the mode of action of next generation glycopeptide antibiotics and elucidate how they kill resistant bacteria by localising in membranes. This observation led to renewed and inspired drug discovery efforts and assisted in the design and development of novel, membrane-targeting antibiotics. Prof. Cooper has publications in Nature, Nature Drug Discovery, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Cell Biology, 19 patents, two books, and has launched nine product families.